Salem's Lot

Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem's Lot in the hopes that living in an old mansion, long the subject of town lore, will help him cast out his own devils and provide inspiration for his new book. But when two young boys venture into the woods and only one comes out alive Mears begins to realize that there may be something sinister at work and that his hometown is under siege by forces of darkness far beyond his control.

The Stand

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.

Insomnia

Since his wife died, Ralph Roberts has been having trouble sleeping. Each night he wakes up a bit earlier until he's barely sleeping at all. During his late-night walks, he observes some strange things going on in Derry, Maine. He sees colored ribbons streaming from people's heads, two strange little men wandering around town after dark, and more. He begins to suspect that these visions are something more than hallucinations brought on by lack of sleep.

The Eyes of the Dragon

The Kingdom of Delain is at stake when King Roland is murdered and his son and rightful heir, Peter, is framed for the crime. Plotting against him is the evil Flagg and his pawn, young Prince Thomas. Yet with every plan there are holes - like Thomas's terrible secret. And the determined Prince Peter, who is planning a daring escape from his imprisonment.

It

Welcome to Derry, Maine. It's a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real. They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made 28 years ago calls them to reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city's children.

Hearts in Atlantis

All the stories in this collection from Stephen King are related to the Vietnam War. King fans will recognize echoes of The Dark Tower series in the collection's first story, "Low Men in Yellow Coats." As the characters develop over the next four stories, King's version of the Vietnam War becomes one of his most frightening tales ever.

Doctor Sleep: A Novel

Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.

The Shining

Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales

The first collection of stories Stephen King has published since Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years ago, Everything's Eventual includes one O. Henry Prize winner, two other award winners, four stories published by The New Yorker, and "Riding the Bullet", King's original e-book, which attracted over half a million online readers and became the most famous short story of the decade. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, they announce the stunningly fertile imagination of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time.

11-22-63: A Novel

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

Dreamcatcher

A dark and sweeping adventure, Dreamcatcher is set in the haunted city of Derry - the site of Stephen King's It and Insomnia. In it, four young boys stand together and do a brave, good thing, an act that changes them in ways that they hardly understand. A quarter-century later, as grown men who have gone their separate ways, these friends come together once a year to hunt in the woods of Maine.

The Dead Zone

Johnny Smith awakens from a five-year coma after his car accident and discovers that he can see people's futures and pasts when he touches them. Many consider his talent a gift; Johnny feels cursed. His fiancée married another man during his coma, and people clamor for him to solve their problems. When Johnny has a disturbing vision after he shakes the hand of an ambitious and amoral politician, he must decide if he should take drastic action to change the future.

Cell: A Novel

The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone. Everyone's cell phone. Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.

The Mist

In the wake of a destructive Maine summer thunderstorm, an impenetrable mist descends from the direction of a local military facility and infiltrates the small town of Bridgton. David Drayton and his son, Billy, are dragged into a living nightmare as unnatural and violent forces concealed by the mist begin to emerge, wreaking havoc in their wake.

Gerald's Game

Gerald and Jessie Burlingame have gone to their summer home on a warm weekday in October for a romantic getaway. After being handcuffed to her bedposts, Jessie tires of her husband's games, but when Gerald refuses to stop, the evening ends with deadly consequences. Still handcuffed, Jessie is trapped and alone. Over the next 28 hours, in the lakeside house that has become a prison, Jessie will come face to face with all the things she has ever feared.

Needful Things

Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little "deed", usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control, and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself. Only Sheriff Alan Pangborn suspects that Gaunt is behind the population's increasingly violent behavior.

Mr Mercedes

Described as 'the best thriller of the year' Sunday Express, the No. 1 bestseller introduces retired cop Bill Hodges in a race against time to apprehend a killer. A cat-and-mouse suspense thriller featuring Bill Hodges, a retired cop who is tormented by 'the Mercedes massacre', a case he never solved. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of that notorious crime, has sent Hodges a taunting letter.

Desperation

Located off a desolate stretch of Interstate 50, Desperation, Nevada, has few connections with the rest of the world. It is a place, though, where the seams between worlds are thin. And it is a place where several travelers are abducted by Collie Entragian, the maniacal police officer of Desperation. Entragian uses various ploys for the abductions, from an arrest for drug possession to "rescuing" a family from a nonexistent gunman.

Duma Key: A Novel

A terrible accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. When his marriage suddenly ends, Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived his injuries. He wants out. His psychologist suggests a new life distant from the Twin Cities, along with something else.

Blood and Smoke

This collection of short stories from the master of modern fiction is available only as an audiobook. In Blood and Smoke, Stephen King takes us inside a world of yearning and paranoia, isolation and addiction. It is the world of the smoker. In this audio-only collection, the now politically incorrect habit plays a key role in the fates of three different men.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

The Tommyknockers

Writer Bobbi Anderson becomes obsessed with digging up something she's found buried in the woods near her home. With the help of her friend, Jim Gardener, she uncovers an alien spaceship. Though exposure to the Tommyknockers, who piloted the alien ship, has harmful effects on residents' health, the people of Haven develop a talent for creating innovative devices under their increasingly malignant influence.

Publisher's Summary

For those discovering the epic best-selling Dark Tower series for the first time—and for its legions of dedicated fans—here is an immensely satisfying stand-alone novel and perfect introduction to the series.

Beginning in 1974, gaining momentum in the 1980s and coming to a thrilling conclusion when the last three novels were published in 2003 and 2004, the Dark Tower epic fantasy saga stands as Stephen King’s most beguiling achievement. It has been the basis for a long-running Marvel comic series.

Now, with The Wind Through the Keyhole, King has returned to the rich landscape of Mid-World. This story within a story within a story finds Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, in his early days during the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death. Sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, a "skin-man", Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, a brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast's most recent slaughter. Roland, himself only a teenager, calms the boy by reciting a story from the Book of Eld that his mother used to read to him at bedtime. "A person's never too old for stories," he says to Bill. "Man and boy, girl and woman, we live for them."

Sure to captivate the avid fans of the Dark Tower epic, this is an enchanting introduction to Roland’s world and the power of Stephen King’s storytelling magic.

Another excellent Steven King story. It doesn't have the same feel as the rest of the Dark Tower series. It's much more stand-alone beginning-middle-end, because we aren't following most of the characters in this book through 7 novels.

I'd recommend reading this one on paper unless you're accustomed to Stephen King's narration. We were really pampered by George Guidall's vocal range. Stephen King comes across much flatter, and in the beginning his version of Roland's ka-tet can be disconcerting.

If you could sum up The Wind Through the Keyhole in three words, what would they be?

Great journey home

What did you like best about this story?

The creativity of it and just the whole new adventure with a great Ka-tet

How could the performance have been better?

Hiring a professional voice over actor. This was a major disappointment not to have the usual narrator do the story. Stephen King has shown many times he is NOT an actor. All voices are read the same tone and with no emotion at all. I am very upset by this point. I was so looking forward to this book and this part ruined it. I hope it wasn't just plain cheapness that didn't allow for a professional voice over actor or perhaps Stephen Kings ego. Very unhappy about this point.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I enjoyed the whole story from begining to end. Aside from the voice work it was great and really hope there are more adventures to come with these characters.

If you could sum up The Wind Through the Keyhole in three words, what would they be?

Great journey home

What did you like best about this story?

The creativity of it and just the whole new adventure with a great Ka-tet

How could the performance have been better?

Hiring a professional voice over actor. This was a major disappointment not to have the usual narrator do the story. Stephen King has shown many times he is NOT an actor. All voices are read the same tone and with no emotion at all. I am very upset by this point. I was so looking forward to this book and this part ruined it. I hope it wasn't just plain cheapness that didn't allow for a professional voice over actor or perhaps Stephen Kings ego. Very unhappy about this point.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I enjoyed the whole story from begining to end. Aside from the voice work it was great and really hope there are more adventures to come with these characters.

Perhaps I should give the print version a chance to see if the story seems better to me, but I didn't find the story anywhere near the quality of ANY of the previous Dark Tower books. I wonder if this was written due to popular demand rather than some inspiration from Stephen King. While the idea of the author narrating his own book is nice [i.e. The Kite Runner!], in this case, the narration is sort of jagged and mostly quite monotone; I had a difficult time following who was "speaking" at any point in time.

Sorry...I was not able to finish the book after about 1/2 way through.

Should have used George Guidall for narration like the previous Dark Tower books. They were fantastic.

Would you recommend The Wind Through the Keyhole to your friends? Why or why not?

No, not in audiobook format.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I'm legally blind and can no longer read traditionally, I rely solely on audiobooks for all my reading. King's narration was so monotone, robotic, and lifeless, my imagination had trouble engaging and mind would drift. Also, I could never really tell who was talking at a given moment and had to constantly rewind to remember who was talking at a given moment. If you are reading on paper, it is very easy to skim back up the page a bit to revisit who is talking, if you happen to miss it or drift off. With a professional narrator, like George Guidall, it's easier to tell who is talking by the voice/mannerisms given to the characters by the narrator.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I really don't know if the story was good or bad due to the crippling narration. Very frustrating.

Any additional comments?

This book was was extremely difficult, almost painful, to get through due to King's bad narration, which is a shame as I consider the original Dark Tower audiobook series as the greatest audiobook story of all time, by any author... ever. Disappointing to say the least.

Oh well, our worst fears have come to fruition. Getting back to mid-world wasn't the best idea after all.

The story is average, and truly feels as if it has nothing to do with the 7 books we have loved for years. In hindsight, that was the intent all along, but man did I miss Eddie, Jake, Susannah, Oye, and Roland, and I still miss them.

One point I should make however - this in fact may have been a good read, but listening to King's voice (which I didn't mind in Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, and others) really detracted from this story. All I could think about was how Frank Muller and George Guidall would have made this better